Part of my summer ritual as a resident of New York City involves a three-hour bus ride to Long Island every five days or so to escape said city and the 90-degree convection oven known as outside.  

Within that three-hour journey, I try to do something more productive than eavesdropping on entitled 20-somethings and put-off 40-somethings. This summer I’ve been immersing myself in ancient Stoic philosophy and psychology courses. I like to think of it as my Jitney Adult Education Center. 

It’s stunning how many of the lessons and principles taught by ancient scholars hold up to time, and how we in advertising can benefit from thought leadership that dates to 3,000 years before LinkedIn. 

Trust me, I’m getting to the point. But I figured a bit of a run-up was required before I started talking about sacrificing babies and spec pitches.

The Moloch Trap 

Thousands of years ago, it seems that there was a very needy deity named Moloch who demanded that worshipers sacrifice their babies to him. In modern times Moloch’s name lives on with thankfully less infanticidal connotations. 

More: How to win without pitching

As writer Scott Alexander puts it: “Just as the ancient worshippers of Moloch were caught in a cycle of horrific sacrifices to gain favor or avoid punishment, modern societies can find themselves trapped in harmful patterns due to misaligned incentives and competitive dynamics.”

The Moloch Trap is when someone in a competition does something to gain an advantage that forces everyone else to do the same—thus making the situation worse for everyone. 

A modern analogy made by game theorist Liv Boeree imagines an audience at a concert. If people near the front of the stage stand to get a better view, everyone behind them has to stand in order to see. Meaning that everyone now has the same view as before but are far less comfortable.  

We do this in pitches all the time.  

Any agency that’s ever been in a pitch that’s been told “no spec”—only to learn one of the agencies is doing spec—has been caught in the Moloch Trap. Suddenly you find yourself in a very projected and costly spec pitch. An arms race of near-finished videos and hundreds of Google Slides.   

As an industry, I think it would benefit us all if we adopted a Moloch Clause for RFPs. (Are you listening 4A’s?) A clause that states, if a pitch says, “no spec,” then any agency that brings spec should be disqualified. 

I understand the need, or at least the desire, for spec in certain cases. But as an industry, I think we should agree to a level playing field, with level-setting rules. 

This all may sound bitter and harsh, and some of you may be thinking, “Who hurt you, Greg?” But this isn’t stemming from any particular incident. It's just that as an agency owner, the decision to pitch or not to pitch takes on a large set of factors to weigh.

Pitches can be invigorating but also emotionally and often financially draining. We don’t take the decision lightly. We go all in, or not at all. And all too often I’ve seen or heard about pitches where the rules have changed during the game. Not just about spec, but other aspects such as timing and fees. All of which make an imperfect process even less perfect. 

I believe there are better ways to start a relationship. 

Starting with chemistry, chemistry, chemistry, combined with a large dose of strategy and collaborative problem-defining. Many of our longest relationships—as well as projects that led to more projects and committed relationships—have started as such. We find this a more productive and effective way to demonstrate the value we bring and gauge if both sides would make a great partner. Not insignificantly, the work you do, is work that gets made. In game theory that is a win-win. (A key learning from bus ride #4.)

And yes, sometimes a formal pitch is just unavoidable. However, we can avoid turning it into a competition where taking part takes part of your soul. 

The Moloch Clause is one idea to help save agencies from themselves. If the ancient people were brave enough to band together and stop sacrificing their babies to a vengeful god, then I believe we can band together to stop sacrificing our value. 

I’ll leave you with this: If our ancestors would have just said, “Yeah, but it’s all part of the process,” how many of us wouldn’t be here right now? My bus rides tend to get existential.